"They accepted a hail from an Andalite vessel but yeah. We could call that number again. Well, you could, I don't speak Portuguese."

<Sure, let's try it. Once we get to safety somewhere.>

"Australia?"

<I guess so.> Sigh. <I guess it's safe to take the shuttles there, if they don't have the capacity to track them anymore.>

"The Pool ship can't do that on its own, or you're assuming the mutineer won't?"

<Its in-atmosphere capabilities should be much more limited, though it'd be better not to bet on it if you can think of another way to get us there.>

"Airplane, but it'd be hard to get you guys on an airplane for that long a flight."

<Yes. How long is it?>

"I'd need to look it up, at least twelve hours."

Swish swish. <I think we'll chance one shuttle. Leave some people behind to see how that goes.>

"What is it you wanted to tell your cousins?"

<It's complicated.>

"You were going to tell my drug-addled alternate universe self."

<They wanted to come with us, under a different commander. It would've been difficult to navigate, but we could have used their help. My father sabotaged their departure such that they couldn't come along. I didn't know, but of course that will be difficult to believe. Easier if I'd sent a messenger back to our home planet to convey it, I'd have had less reason to lie then.>

"Oh. Well, maybe already being in Australia'll lend you some credibility or we'll get more contact from the magic people before they show up."

<Maybe. Or it won't matter very much because the Yeerks are friendly and we won't need to trust each other.>

"...what is it going to look like if they show up and the Yeerks are acting friendly towards everybody?"

<Like we lost, presumably. We will have to make sure they don't just destroy the planet but I imagine the magic drugs wouldn't have engineered that?>

"Probably, but there might still be something specific we will in fact do but only after we figure out to do it."

<It might actually make more sense to meet them in space, if we can safely operate in space, which will depend on the Yeerks.>

"They gonna want to quarantine us all?"

<Presumably.>

"Fun."

<I would sort of rather die but this is silly and I will get over it.>

"You guys don't have lots of social technology for making quarantine non-aversive so nobody's ever tempted to skip it and make it ambiguous if reluctance is suspicious or not?"